6 ms·

next level: mining the sites for the content and getting rid of the recipe's life story. to me, no-bs means ingredients and instructions. Maybe a few pictures

next level: mining the sites for the content and getting rid of the recipe's life story. to me, no-bs means ingredients and instructions. Maybe a few pictures of the target meal. thats it.

Spivak 5y ago
You don't have to mine the site at all. There's a schema for the data that basically all cooking sites support if they want SEO https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/structured-data/recipe https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/structure...
- chaxor 5y ago
  Perhaps I'm dim, but I don't understand how that means you don't have to mine the site. Doesn't that simply mean you could perform the process all of the URLs in the database here by making the http request, grabbing those`recipeIngredient` sections, converting units and such, and then populating your simpler database from that? That seems like pretty textbook (albeit very simplistic) mining to me.
lkbm 5y ago
A lot of sites have a "Jump to Recipe" link. If this linked directly to that section, it'd be okay.
mfashby 5y ago
https://plainoldrecipe.com/ https://plainoldrecipe.com/ does this!
- VRay 5y ago
  Man, what a disappointing thread.. the BBC site is great except it’s all weird British ingredients and units (how do I convert grams of British flour into cups of American flour without a scale?) The OP’s site is a really nice search engine, but it dumps you into the recipes’ unreadable SEO trash pit websites instead of parsing out the data PlainOldRecipe isn’t working to strip recipes down for me
  - Larrikin 5y ago
    Not sure if calling the metric system weird is actually serious or not but the solution is to get a scale. Modern cooking highly utilizes the scale and probe thermometers. They seem unimportant to the new cook but I end up using one or both for nearly all my meals now. Dry ingredients especially should be done by weight.
    - jdavis703 5y ago
      If you’re baking, sure measure by weight for best results. If you’re cooking basic, non-technical meals it’s more about proportions than anything else.
  - usui 5y ago
    "it’s all weird British ingredients and units (how do I convert grams of British flour into cups of American flour without a scale?)" dear God please let this be satire, and make it satire if it isn't
  - kokekolo 5y ago
    As someone who lived in the US for 8 years... How much is a cup?
    - grogenaut 5y ago
      Let me know then next time you pay for a kilogram of petrol at the pump. Some things make more sense to measure by volume, others by weight. This is disjoint from imperial vs metric.
      - Mikeb85 5y ago
        Yes, it makes more sense to measure something fluid by volume when it doesn't fit on a scale. Also, the fact that gasoline pumps are pressurised and standardise the volume based on a certain temperature should be a clue to one pitfall of volume-based measurements.
      - karolist 5y ago
- xtracto 5y ago
  It didn´t work with this link: https://www.bakerita.com/oatmeal-fig-bars-gluten-free-vegan/ https://www.bakerita.com/oatmeal-fig-bars-gluten-free-vegan/ I've personally found mysaffronapp.com to be way better at this: It has been able to process recipes from every website I've shot at it. I think the developer contributes here to HN, as i learned about the site from a post she/he made.
KeithBrink 5y ago
In addition to the other suggestions, a Firefox extension that does this: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/recipe-filter https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/recipe-filter
- fancy_pantser 5y ago
  I wrote recipe-filter thanks to a comment here on HN years ago! https://github.com/sean-public/RecipeFilter https://github.com/sean-public/RecipeFilter
radihuq 5y ago
Interestingly, someone built a recipe app with this narrative and received a ton of backlash online: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56241653 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56241653
- cacois 5y ago
  I love how they say the content that users dislike is "relevant to the recipe", rather than admitting its SEO fodder.
  - madamelic 5y ago
    It's actually not SEO fodder (necessarily). Recipes are not copyrightable but if you pair a recipe with a story, the entire deliverable is copyrightable [0] because the recipe becomes a work of expression rather than a rote list. > In other words, a bare recipe, without literary expression, is not copyrightable [0]: https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=3741a5c0-f146-40ab-8f74-21427cd3b673#:~:text=In%20other%20words%2C%20a%20bare,literary%20expression%2C%20is%20not%20copyrightable.&text=Under%20Publications%2C%20the%20list%20of,of%20any%20protectable%20expressive%20element https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=3741a5c0-f146....
    - cacois 5y ago
      Interesting point, I hadn't considered this.
  - boringg 5y ago
    I don't think its SEO fodder I think its to space out the page so you have to scroll through multiple advertisements so they get their revenue. Either way its total garbage.
    - davestephens 5y ago
      Yeah. Screw those guys trying to make a living!
jonathankoren 5y ago
Cooking sites were pretty good with micro formats a few years ago, so it wasn’t that hard to scrape them
swalsh 5y ago
I've automated my meal planning using a command line app I wrote in python (https://github.com/steven-p-walsh/menuplannercmd https://github.com/steven-p-walsh/menuplannercmd) The app tries to estimate the best menu based on what I like, what I have, what i've made in the past, and something I call slots, which let me give myself more or less time to cook. I also add some randomness to keep things fresh. As i've built the app, I realized I almost never care about anything more than a rough estimate of the ingredients needed. Even then, I really only care about a few key ingredients. Here is an example (https://github.com/steven-p-walsh/menuplannercmd/blob/master/data/american/chickenpotpie.json https://github.com/steven-p-walsh/menuplannercmd/blob/master...)
s1mon 5y ago
This is already mentioned upstream, but the Paprika app does exactly this. It makes online recipes useful and understandable again. https://www.paprikaapp.com https://www.paprikaapp.com
kardamon 5y ago
https://recipe.wtf https://recipe.wtf is another site that does this.
jcul 5y ago
I love the cookbook app for this, you can point it at a URL and it parses the important bits, ingredients, method, pictures etc. and saves the recipe. But it also saves a link to the original incase you want that story. I primarily use it because it was the only app I could find with a good OCR mode for importing recipes from physical cook books.

next level: mining the sites for the content and getting rid of the recipe's life story. to me, no-bs means ingredients and instructions. Maybe a few pictures of the target meal. thats it.

Spivak 5y ago

You don't have to mine the site at all. There's a schema for the data that basically all cooking sites support if they want SEO https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/structured-data/recipe https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/structure...

chaxor 5y ago
Perhaps I'm dim, but I don't understand how that means you don't have to mine the site. Doesn't that simply mean you could perform the process all of the URLs in the database here by making the http request, grabbing those`recipeIngredient` sections, converting units and such, and then populating your simpler database from that? That seems like pretty textbook (albeit very simplistic) mining to me.

lkbm 5y ago

A lot of sites have a "Jump to Recipe" link. If this linked directly to that section, it'd be okay.

mfashby 5y ago

https://plainoldrecipe.com/ https://plainoldrecipe.com/ does this!

VRay 5y ago
Man, what a disappointing thread.. the BBC site is great except it’s all weird British ingredients and units (how do I convert grams of British flour into cups of American flour without a scale?) The OP’s site is a really nice search engine, but it dumps you into the recipes’ unreadable SEO trash pit websites instead of parsing out the data PlainOldRecipe isn’t working to strip recipes down for me
- Larrikin 5y ago
  Not sure if calling the metric system weird is actually serious or not but the solution is to get a scale. Modern cooking highly utilizes the scale and probe thermometers. They seem unimportant to the new cook but I end up using one or both for nearly all my meals now. Dry ingredients especially should be done by weight.
  - jdavis703 5y ago
    If you’re baking, sure measure by weight for best results. If you’re cooking basic, non-technical meals it’s more about proportions than anything else.
- usui 5y ago
  "it’s all weird British ingredients and units (how do I convert grams of British flour into cups of American flour without a scale?)" dear God please let this be satire, and make it satire if it isn't
- kokekolo 5y ago
  As someone who lived in the US for 8 years... How much is a cup?
  - grogenaut 5y ago
    Let me know then next time you pay for a kilogram of petrol at the pump. Some things make more sense to measure by volume, others by weight. This is disjoint from imperial vs metric.
    - Mikeb85 5y ago
      Yes, it makes more sense to measure something fluid by volume when it doesn't fit on a scale. Also, the fact that gasoline pumps are pressurised and standardise the volume based on a certain temperature should be a clue to one pitfall of volume-based measurements.
    - karolist 5y ago
xtracto 5y ago
It didn´t work with this link: https://www.bakerita.com/oatmeal-fig-bars-gluten-free-vegan/ https://www.bakerita.com/oatmeal-fig-bars-gluten-free-vegan/ I've personally found mysaffronapp.com to be way better at this: It has been able to process recipes from every website I've shot at it. I think the developer contributes here to HN, as i learned about the site from a post she/he made.

KeithBrink 5y ago

In addition to the other suggestions, a Firefox extension that does this: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/recipe-filter https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/recipe-filter

fancy_pantser 5y ago
I wrote recipe-filter thanks to a comment here on HN years ago! https://github.com/sean-public/RecipeFilter https://github.com/sean-public/RecipeFilter

radihuq 5y ago

Interestingly, someone built a recipe app with this narrative and received a ton of backlash online: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56241653 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56241653

cacois 5y ago
I love how they say the content that users dislike is "relevant to the recipe", rather than admitting its SEO fodder.
- madamelic 5y ago
  It's actually not SEO fodder (necessarily). Recipes are not copyrightable but if you pair a recipe with a story, the entire deliverable is copyrightable [0] because the recipe becomes a work of expression rather than a rote list. > In other words, a bare recipe, without literary expression, is not copyrightable [0]: https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=3741a5c0-f146-40ab-8f74-21427cd3b673#:~:text=In%20other%20words%2C%20a%20bare,literary%20expression%2C%20is%20not%20copyrightable.&text=Under%20Publications%2C%20the%20list%20of,of%20any%20protectable%20expressive%20element https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=3741a5c0-f146....
  - cacois 5y ago
    Interesting point, I hadn't considered this.
- boringg 5y ago
  I don't think its SEO fodder I think its to space out the page so you have to scroll through multiple advertisements so they get their revenue. Either way its total garbage.
  - davestephens 5y ago
    Yeah. Screw those guys trying to make a living!

jonathankoren 5y ago

Cooking sites were pretty good with micro formats a few years ago, so it wasn’t that hard to scrape them

swalsh 5y ago

I've automated my meal planning using a command line app I wrote in python (https://github.com/steven-p-walsh/menuplannercmd https://github.com/steven-p-walsh/menuplannercmd) The app tries to estimate the best menu based on what I like, what I have, what i've made in the past, and something I call slots, which let me give myself more or less time to cook. I also add some randomness to keep things fresh. As i've built the app, I realized I almost never care about anything more than a rough estimate of the ingredients needed. Even then, I really only care about a few key ingredients. Here is an example (https://github.com/steven-p-walsh/menuplannercmd/blob/master/data/american/chickenpotpie.json https://github.com/steven-p-walsh/menuplannercmd/blob/master...)

s1mon 5y ago

This is already mentioned upstream, but the Paprika app does exactly this. It makes online recipes useful and understandable again. https://www.paprikaapp.com https://www.paprikaapp.com

kardamon 5y ago

https://recipe.wtf https://recipe.wtf is another site that does this.

jcul 5y ago

I love the cookbook app for this, you can point it at a URL and it parses the important bits, ingredients, method, pictures etc. and saves the recipe. But it also saves a link to the original incase you want that story. I primarily use it because it was the only app I could find with a good OCR mode for importing recipes from physical cook books.